Avanon had been hanging around the Sands all day, watching the white dam turn and nose her eggs. The shells were rock hard and they would be hatching any day now. Avanon wanted to be first on the Sands, as if this would help him Impress this time. "I will Impress this time, I feel it. My dragon is in one of those eggs..." he reassured himself. His thoughts turned to Klaera, another Draco's Inferno native. She was some turns his senior, and had a love intrest back at home, but he couldn't help getting a little flustered in her presence.

A shock of lightning and the rumble of thunder woke Avanon from where he'd fallen asleep by the Sands entrance. "Shards!" he thought, and stood, brushing dirt and sand off the white robe to be worn at the Hatching. Suddenly, the white dragons began to hum, along with every dragon in the weyr. It was starting! Avanon rushed onto the Sands, proud that he was there first. The beautifully colored eggs were all rocking, some more violently than others as the rest of the candidates filed in. He looked around for Klaera and saw her ushered in last, pushing something into her pocket. He began to wave but the shattering of the first egg distracted him. A beautifully colored green tumbled from her egg, sweeping up wingfuls of the hot sand as she went. She called out to her chosen and he came rushing forward to help her. The white sire, called Turrineth, was apparently proud of his first born, for he bugled loudy, his brassy voice filling the weyr.

Two more eggs shttered and a brown and a tiny blue fell out. The brown, the size of a small bronze, teetered along the line of boys. Avanon eyed the brown hopefully, but he was distracted by a flash of blue in the corner of his eye. The smaller blue was lurking in the shadows, trying to sneak up on his chosen. "Hey, look at that little blue!" Avanon cried out. The blue crooned lovingly, not angry that it had been found.

Avanon! I was hiding from you! I am Frosth.

A'non's eyes filled with tears as he approached his new found lifemate. "You're just as mischevious as me." he thought.

Of course, that is why I chose you! Frosth replied in his mellow mind-voice. A'non gently scooped up his slightly damp dragon and carried him off the Sands.

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Later that day...

Frosth tumbled around playfully with his clutchmate, green Tiyranelth. A'non laughed as the green bit Frosth's tail and he bugled in surprise. "She's going to be a bossy one." Klaera said, coming up beside him. "And Frosth seems not to mind too much." A'non said. Frosth has just gone right back to playing. "Thanks for watching her for a minute, I had to send a message. "No problem, Frosth did all the watching." Odie chirped from A'non's shoulder, his head tilted to one side as if trying to understand what the two dragonets were doing.

"I told you that you would Impress this time, didn't I?" Klaera asked, absently stroking the head of her gold hatchling firelizard. "Yes,and I did believe you. I could feel him out the- hey, where did they go?" Tiyranelth and Frosth had disappeared, leaving A'non and Klaera alone. "Tiyraneth?" Klaera called after her green.

BOO! came the unanimous shout from behind as the dragonets pounced on their respective riders. "Aack!" A'non shouted as he fell. Klaera had managed to stay upright, but she was taller than A'non and could catch her dragon better.

Ha! I knew I could scare you!

Frosth boasted as he pinned A'non to the grass. He bugled his triumph and sat up. Klaera had a hand over her mouth to stop her from laughing as she set Tiyranelth onto the ground. "She says it was Frosth's idea, she just went along." "I can believe it." A'non grumbled as he stood, wiping grass from his clothes.

Don't be such a grump, rider mine. the blue said cheerfully as he sat at A'non's feet.

"I need to be going, A'non. Thanks again!" Klaera waved as she left with Tiyranelth. Frosth said his farewells to Tiyranelth as he and A'non retreated to the weyrling quarters. The blue stumbled sleepily as A'non hefted him onto his bed. Frosth sprawled awkwardly and was too dead asleep to even hope of moving himself. A'non had to re-arrange him into a more comfortable looking postion before he could turn in. "It couldn't get any better than this...." he thought as he fell asleep.